Topic 4: Language Process
Language Process
 Human language is unique, complex and flexible:
 making us (human) more superior than other species
form of communication.
 distinguishes us from other animals.
 The use of language in human reflects:
 our mental behavior
 our cognitive ability
 Language & Thinking are closely related.
Language Development is
important because:
 Through language  children interact
 Language development  very much related to
intellectual development
 Through language  children are able to progress in
other developmental domain.
What is Language?
 Language can be defined in many ways.
 Language is……
 “a set of (finite and infinate) sentences. Each is finite in
length and constructed out of a finite set of
elements” (chomsky, 1957)
 “a mean of communication, generally through spoken
sounds that express specific meanings, and are
arranged according to rules”. (Papalia & Olds, 1985)
 “an organized system of symbols with meanings that
are shared, and are used to communicate”. (Bourne &
Mamcy Felipe Russo, 1998)
What is Language?
 A law of grammar and semantic that makes
conversation more meaningful , i.e. language is a
combination of words to communicate  a symbolic
code used in communication.
 A collection of symbols with rules and collectively they
can create an infinite variety of messages i.e. a
system of symbols and rules that enable us to
communicate.
 The systematic, meaningful arrangement of symbols 
according to rules to create a message that has a
common meaning for users and recipients.
 Covers ways of communication  where thoughts and
emotions are being expressed  in order to convey
message/meaning to others
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Properties of language
Communicative – enable people to communicate with
each other.
Arbitrarily symbolic - Language create an arbitrary
relationship between a symbol and its reference, such
as things, ideas, process, relationship & description.
Regularly structured - Language has a structure,
where particular patterns of sounds and letters form
meaningful words.
Structured at multiple levels – Language structure
can be analyzed at more than one level (e.g. in sound,
meaning units, words, phrases etc)
Generative, Productive – Limitless ability to produce
language creatively
Dynamic – Language constantly evolves
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
What is Language Acquisition?
 A process where one learns language  learning
a native language (first language) or a second
language.
 The process of attaining a specific variant of human
language.
 Learning language occurs throughout an
individual’s life span  it progress according to
individual developmental stages
Language Acquisition, Representation, &
Processing
 Language acquisition
 How is language acquired or learned?
 Language representation
 How are the symbols of language represented in
memory?
 Language processing
 What factors influence the processing of language?
How are Language Acquisition,
Representation, & Processing Related?
How are Language Acquisition,
Representation, & Processing Related?
Language is acquired
How are Language Acquisition,
Representation, & Processing Related?
Language is acquired
Acquisition
leads to a set of
representations
How are Language Acquisition,
Representation, & Processing Related?
Language is acquired
Acquisition
leads to a set of
representations
Language use is the
processing of these
representations
Language Acquisition
 Two types of Language acquisition:
 First language acquisition
 Infants’ acquisition of their native language
 Second language acquisition
 Additional
languages
children & adult.
learned (acquired) by
Language Acquisition:
First language acquisition
 How do we learn our native language? What are
the stages this process follows?
 How do failures in this process occur?
 When you’re tired--not just people with pathologies
Language Acquisition:
Language Development
 Phonological development
 —from babbling to full sentences
 Semantic development
 We learn what things mean (semantics) and acquire
concepts
 Syntactic development and syntactic categories
 We learn the syntax of our language (what are
syntactic categories)
Stages of Language Acquisition
 Receptive language (language comprehension)
 Productive language (language expression or speaking)
 Cooing (6-8 mths) – mostly vowels sound (aaaa, uuuuu,
oooo….)
 Babbling (9-18 mths) – comprising of consonant and vowel
sounds (BA, MA…)
 One-word utterance - (18-24 mths) – limited in both vowels
& consonant – single word (BALL, DAD, HIT….)
 Two-word utterance and telegraphic speech (24-30
mths) - simple sentence (BAD DOG…).
 Basic adult sentence structure (above 30 mths) –
building sentence – presence of grammatical and functional
structure, and continuing vocabulary acquisition.
Language Acquisition
Second Language Acquisition
 Factors that affect our chances of learning L2:
 Individual differences
 working memory span
 Age of acquisition effects
 time at which begin to learn L2
 Environment of learningc
 classroom versus immersion
arnab is “rabbit” or
 associations between translations or directly to concepts
 Style of instruction–
Speech Perception
What is Speech Perception?
 Speech Perception is the process by which the sounds of
language are heard, interpreted and understood, i.e. in
order for people to communicate with other people, they
must first understand what is being spoken to them.
 Speech Perceptions  refers to the process by which
human are able to interpret and understand the sounds
used in language.
 The study of speech perception is closely linked to the fields
of phonetics & phonology (in linguistics) and cognitive &
perception (in psychology)
 Research in speech perception seeks to understand how
human listeners recognize speech sounds and use this
information to understand spoken language.
Speech Perception
 Basically children (human) need to learn four kinds of
knowledge about language:
 Phonology
 sound system of language
 Semantics
 the meaning conveyed by words and sentences
 Syntax
 The set of grammatical rules indicating how words may
be combined to make sentences
 Pragmatics
 The priciple that determine how language are used
pragmatically - according to situations & modified to fit
the context (e.g: we speak in a simpler manner to a
child than to an adult)
Phonological development
 Understanding & pronouncing words
 Vocabulary
 Fast mappingabsorb the meaning of a new word
after hearing it only once or twice in conversation
 The use of metaphor, a figure of speech in which a
word or phrase that usually designates one thing is
applied to another, becomes increasingly common
 A child learn to pronounce  through imitation
(repetitive)
 Eg. TV (ivi), Susu (cu), Minum (num), tumpah (pah)
 A deaf child  normally have problem in speaking
Semantic development
 A child learn the meaning of words then combine
the words
 Adik + Nak + Susu
 A child will then try to relate the meaning of certain
words with it’s sound.
 Addition to his/her vocabulary.
Grammar development
 Children learn about grammar  add words to make
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
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simple sentences.
2 phase:
 The development of simple sentences from basic
words.
 The development of complex sentences
Children start asking questions  thinking &
understanding process is very rapid.
Intelligent children  use complex and sophisticated
sentences/words
As age increases  familiarity with words and sentences
increases  able to use, different form of sentences.
Pragmatic development
 Children learn about the aim and how certain words and
sentences are being used in a conversation  use language
efficiently in social context.
 Pragmatics  the practical knowledge of how to use language
to communicate.
 Social speech
 Speech intended to be understood by a listener
 Private Speech
 Talking aloud to oneself with no intent to communicate with
others
 Normal and common in childhood
Noam Chomsky Theory of Language
Acquisition Device (LAD)
 Children (human) will automatically acquire language
merely by being exposed to it, regardless of any external
reinforcement or operant conditioning.
 Children (human) have an innate language acquisition
device (LAD)
 i.e. an inbuilt mechanism which automatically allows a
child to decode and spoken language she/he hears
 According to Chomsky, languages differ only in the
surface structure, but they share a similar underlying
deep structure, i.e. the fundamental meaning and actions
that the words convey (“Ahmad eat banana” = “ The
banana was eaten by Ahmad”) – eventhough their surface
structure is different, but they have same deep structure
(meaning of sentence/word).
The classical Wernicke-Geschwind
model of language
Wernicke–Geschwind model
 Carl Wernicke created an early neurological model of language,
that later was revived by Norman Geschwind - The model is
known as the WERNICKE–GESCHWIND MODEL.
 According to Wernicke, people who suffer from brain
damage to a particular part of the brain (i.e. temporal lobe
– Wernicke’s area) may experience receptive aphasia, i.e.
cannot understand speech, but still can speak fluently
(their speech is meaningless).
 Damage to Broca’s area (frontal cortex)  cause individual
to suffer from aphasia, i.e. cannot speak (partial/total loss of
speech ability) but still understand what others are saying.
Wernicke–Geschwind model
 W-G model
suggest that wernicke’s area contains
auditory codes (i.e. information about what they SOUND
like and meaning of words), and Broca’s area consists of
articulatory codes (the motor commands that tells the mouth
& larynx how to form words.
 For listening to and understanding spoken
words, the sounds of the words are sent
through the auditory pathways to area 41
(the primary auditory cortex)  From here they
continue to wernicke’s, where the meaning of
the words is extracted.
 In order to speak, the meanings of words are
sent from Wernicke’s area via the arcuate
fasciculus to Broca’s area.
 Broca’s area holds a representation for
articulating words  Instructions for speech
are sent from Broca’s area to the facial area of
the motor cortex  and from there instructions
are sent to facial motor neurons in the
brainstem, which relay movement orders to
facial muscles.
Wernicke–
Geschwind
Model
Wernicke–Geschwind model
 In order to READ, information concerning the
written text is sent from visual areas 17, 18,
and 19 to the angular gyrus (area 39)  and
from there to Wernicke’s area (for silent
reading) or, together with Broca’s area (for
reading out loud).
 This model is now obsolete.
 But it has been very useful in directing
research and organizing research results,
because it is based on the idea that
language consists of two basic functions:
 comprehension (a sensory/perceptual
function)
 Speaking (a motor function.)
SCL Questions to discuss
1. In your opinion….
 Can one language ever be fully turned off?
 Is L1 grammar always active?
 Can L2 become the more dominant language?
 What factors influence the relative activation of the
two languages (individual and contextual)?
2. Discuss:
 Noam Chomsky Theory of Language
Acquisition Device (LAD)
 Wernicke-Geschwind model.
 The differences in both theory/model